


Brighter Than This Fire

by WhatWouldJackSparrowDo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Black Paladin Hunk (Voltron), Blue Paladin Lance (Voltron), Friendship, Gen, Green Paladin Pidge (Voltron), Happy Ending, POV Hunk (Voltron), Red Paladin Keith (Voltron), Season/Series 08 AU, Team as Family, Voltron Secret Santa 2020, Yellow Paladin Allura (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28322505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatWouldJackSparrowDo/pseuds/WhatWouldJackSparrowDo
Summary: As a last resort, Haggar creates a mysterious rift in the fabric of reality and travels through it. When Voltron follows her through, determined to stop whatever nefarious plan she's concocted now, the team is shocked to find themselves roughly 10,000 years into the past. As they get their bearings on the restored planet Altea, three very, very big problems become clear:1. The Atlas and the Blade of Marmora, both of whom had been right behind them and Haggar, are nowhere to be found.2. Haggar has already been locked up in the deepest, darkest prison cell on Altea. That should be a good thing, actually, except that Hunk can't help but think Haggar must have known that would happen, so even that must be part of her plan.3. Their lions have abandoned them....Now what?
Relationships: Allura & Haggar (Voltron), Allura & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Voltron Secret Santa





	1. Prologue: All You're Holding Onto

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ink_Beneath_Her_Fingernails](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Beneath_Her_Fingernails/gifts).



> Happy holidays everybody! Here's my gift for the Voltron Secret Santa 2020 gift exchange!
> 
> This is mostly written, but I'm spacing out the publishing of each chapter; next one will be out 12/29, and it will be completely posted by 1/07.
> 
> Fair warning: I hadn't seen Voltron for at least a year before I started writing this. I did my best to get the history, technology, etc. right, but I've discovered that there's actually a remarkable lack of information on the Voltron and VLD wikis, so I'm sure I messed some crap up. Hopefully you can suspend your disbelief if anything jumps out at you :)
> 
> Title is from Champion by Tommee Profitt ft. Nicole Serrano. Got a couple of playlists here, one [short](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2sJ3aYIfbjVKLD6LLm5bjv?si=7OeeYWmMTh6FVO8dH6ZPvg) (~1.5 hrs) and one [long](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5LvipVcWd9XACL2CFj2K1h?si=3G_4OQY5Tdi6YRBtX5_Tew) (~3.5 hrs), in case you'd like to listen to music while reading! If not, I recommend listening to the theme of each chapter (listed before the title) before reading :)
> 
> To my giftee: I had such a ridiculously fun time writing this! Time travel is one of my favorite tropes in general and you're absolutely right that there's not enough of it in the VLD fandom. Plus, Black Paladin Hunk is a FANTASTIC idea that never even crossed my mind 'till I saw it in your request. I really enjoyed figuring out the relationship dynamics in that kind of setup. I could honestly go on and on about how happy I was to be paired with you for this exchange, so I really, really hope you enjoy this!

> Everything around you is caving in  
>  All you're holding onto is  
>  Slipping like water through your hands
> 
> Black by Kari Kimmel

#### Prologue: All You're Holding Onto

The second Voltron followed Haggar into the rift she had created, the world around Hunk exploded in a cacophony of iridescent lights, earsplitting warbles, and flashing images in no particular order, context, or theme. Hunk could not have said whether the experience was happening to him, or being projected into his mind by some force, or both were somehow true, or there was some different explanation altogether.

The sensory overload ceased as the rift spat Voltron out into a jarringly empty galaxy, and yet Hunk was thrust from one unfathomable ordeal directly into another as a feeling of foreboding and trepidation enveloped him. It was not anything like the uncertainty of Haggar’s plans, or the apprehension of failing to stop her, or the fear that even if they succeeded, they were likely to die in the effort. Those were all familiar feelings. The bone-deep dread that was settling in, however, was utterly foreign to him. It was a sensation of wrongness so sinister in nature that for just a moment it seemed to suck all the oxygen from the Black Lion.

Logically, however, Hunk knew that there must still be oxygen in his lion, and he proved it by taking a deep, stabilizing breath. _Stop,_ he thought at himself, mostly by instinct, because his brain was not currently inclined towards coherent thoughts. _Stop. Breathe._

He counted, with great difficulty, to ten, and then he counted to ten a second time, and then a third time, too, just to be on the safe side.

 _Question One: Where is your team?_ As he queried himself, his brain belatedly registered the alarmed noises his aforementioned team had been making throughout their journey to… wherever they were now. In fact, he recalled now that he, too, had been making some alarmed noises. Still, all of that had been while they were traveling through the rift, which implied that they had made the journey with him but did not confirm that they had arrived at the same destination.

‘Sound off,’ Hunk tried to say, but the words caught in his throat, his voice snuffed out by the suffocating disquiet that crawled along his skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. He took another breath, and then he said, with steadiness that surprised him, “Sound off.”

The silence that followed threatened to suffocate Hunk more thoroughly than any strange and unsettling impression that his surroundings could imprint on him. He consoled himself with the rationalization that they were probably forcing their words out through the same barrier that had impeded his own. In reality, it was probably only a handful of seconds before Allura wheezed, “Allura here.”

A couple more seconds, and then –

“Keith here.”

“Lance here.”

“Pidge here.”

 _Allura’s here, Keith’s here, Lance’s here, Pidge’s here,_ Hunk repeated, internalizing the information and giving it a moment to settle his nerves. There was no word from Atlas, and that was concerning, but Shiro was there, and so were Coran, Veronica, Sam, and a whole host of other perfectly competent people. One problem at a time. _Question Two: How is my team?_

He relayed that question directly to them, and there was another silence, but this time his teammates’ collective contemplation was so strong that it rumbled reassuringly across their telepathic bond, so he wasn’t too panicked. Soon, Lance responded confidently, if a bit unhappily, “Everything seems fine with Blue! Although neither of us enjoyed that ride….”

“None of us enjoyed that ride,” Keith groaned.

Pidge butted in with, “Yeah, well, what I’m _really_ not enjoying is the way Green can’t even tell where we are – “

Well, if the three of them were composed enough to be complaining, then they must be fine. Black was doing fine too – disoriented, maybe, but fine.

By now, Hunk’s senses had more or less adjusted to the situation (as much as one can ever adjust to something that they can’t even begin to explain, which, over the past sixteen months or so, had proven to be quite the exceptional amount of adjustment, as it turned out). Now he could see clearly that the area they’d arrived in could only be described as ‘empty’ in comparison to the chaos that had dropped them there. A nearby planet was positively bustling with activity, even in the space around it.

…It was… actually a very familiar planet….

“Altea?” Allura whispered. “It can’t be….”

Furious typing over the comms indicated that Pidge was fact-checking just before she reported warily, “Believe it or not, Allura’s right. We’re looking at Altea.” Hunk didn’t need her confirmation to know that Allura was right, though. Now that he was more aware of his surroundings, he realized that Black had recognized Altea for what it was right off the bat, and the nostalgia coming over the paladins’ mind link from each of the Lions was nearly overwhelming, but it was tinged with fear, too. Hunk concentrated closely on his bond with Black to try and get an idea of what there was to fear, but the only results yielded was a powerful projection of Voltron itself, which was absolutely no help at all.

Lance spluttered in bewilderment, then said, “How is _Altea_ – “ then spluttered a little more, then fell silent, evidently having concluded that words were beyond him.

 _Answer One: The team is here,_ Hunk reminded himself forcefully, pushing his thoroughly derailed train of thought back on track. _Answer Two: The team is okay. Answer Three: We’re… in Altea’s galaxy. Question Four… How…? No. Question Four: When are we?_

“Allura, can you tell what year…” _Not years -_ “…what decaphoeb…” _I wouldn’t know what to do with that information -_ “…how many decaphoebs are between now and…” _Is there even a way to phrase this tactfully?_ “…when you and Coran went into cryosleep?”

Allura was silent for a long, long time, but Hunk didn’t sense any distress from her. From Lance, and Pidge, and Keith, there was definitely some measure of distress, but there was none from Allura. The only emotions Allura was projecting, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were awe and elation. “Maybe six,” she answered eventually, her voice light and distracted. “At least six, because the war lasted six decaphoebs and… and I see ships from Daibazaal here. Merchant ships.”

Hunk’s stomach flipped. The war with Zarkon hadn’t even begun yet? He supposed that those six decaphoebs were only a fraction of the ten thousand years he’d already known that Haggar had rewound just by seeing Altea restored, but somehow those six decaphoebs felt like an even greater weight. What the heck were they supposed to do now? _Okay, calm down. One thing at a time. Answer Four: Ten thousand and six years ago, or something like that. Question Five…._ There were so many questions left, and Hunk did not want to contemplate a single one of them.

_Where’s the Atlas? Where’s the Blade of Marmora? They were right behind us, so what’s taking them so long? Where’s Haggar? What is her plan? Can we get back to our time? If so, how? If so…, should we?_

After a heartbeat’s internal debate, Hunk decide it was worth a short delay to sort the data he’d gathered and the troublingly long list of questions into a more manageable assortment of thoughts. _Problem One: The Atlas and the Blade of Marmora are not here. Problem Two: We don’t know where Haggar is. Problem Three: We are stranded in an unfamiliar time and place, with potentially catastrophic space-time repercussions. Problem Three is a threat, but it may not be immediate. Problem One is an immediate threat, but does not seem to be solvable._

“We need to find the Atlas,” Pidge put forth, her tone sharpened by anxiety about her family aboard the Atlas. “Are they back in the past? We need to get back – “

“We followed Haggar for a reason,” Hunk interjected reluctantly. “She needs to be our priority.” He relayed his reasoning in as few words as he could, and with various sentiments of resigned unhappiness, his team agreed.

Of course, all thoughts of Haggar, Atlas, and rifts fled from their minds when in the distance, Voltron arose from Altea.

Pidge let loose a slew of obscene words that her mother would have grounded her for even thinking, then said, “ _Holy crap it’s the original freaking paladins._ ”

“Father,” Allura breathed, and Hunk’s gaze was drawn at once to the other Voltron’s right arm, wherein King Alfor was surely piloting an alternate Red Lion. "The paladins of old...!"

The foreboding and dread and sheer wrongness doubled as Voltron came into view, and it only continued escalating from there. Hunk had the sudden urge to eject himself directly from the Black Lion into the void, and it was strangely difficult to wrangle the urge into submission. The longer the feelings carried on and the more intense they grew, the more certain he became that these feelings were actually Black’s ( _his_ Black, not Zarkon’s) and not his own at all.

“Uh, guys?” Lance croaked. “Anyone else get the feeling that the ‘paladins of old’ are not exactly friendly?”

Indeed, Voltron appeared to be gearing up for a fight. With a pang of dismay, Hunk realized that they were in grave danger. Even if Old Voltron was trying to capture New Voltron rather than kill them (Hunk didn’t have high hopes for that, anyway; regardless of what Allura said about Old Zarkon, Hunk couldn’t picture Zarkon as anything other than power-mad and bellicose) they couldn’t risk getting captured and interrogated by anyone. Frankly, until they knew more about what was going on, they really couldn’t even risk interacting with Old Voltron.

 _Problem Four: We’re about to fight Allura’s father. Problem Five: We’re prooobably about to be **murdered by FREAKING ZARKON**. AGAIN._ Of all New Voltron’s fallen foes, _of course_ the one they’d have to fight and possibly kill a second time would be _Zarkon_!

“New plan,” Hunk barked, willing himself to sound surer than he felt. “We can figure out a long-term plan later. Our top priority is evading Old Voltron.”

“Any ideas on how to do that?” Pidge yelped.

“…We need somewhere to land,” Hunk replied eventually. “Some kind of forest, ideally near some kind of big city or any other place that might draw a crowd… Allura?”

“Sending coordinates now,” Allura responded promptly. "No city, but there's a popular marketplace that should suffice." Hunk ached with relief at the knowledge that at least one complication in this mess was easily and quickly rectified.

As soon as Allura’s recommendation for a landing zone reached Black’s navigation system, Hunk continued, “On my command, split up in five different directions, go around the planet and the moon a few times, and make your way to those coordinates. Once we touch down, get to a crowded area as fast as you can on foot. We’ll meet ”

It was a mark of the severity of the situation that the usual round of objections at the prospect of splitting up went unspoken.

Keith cleared his throat. “I’ll draw their fire, give you guys more time to get away – “

That, at least, provoked the normal response.

“Like hell you will!” Lance snapped.

“Absolutely not,” Allura objected.

“Are you out of your mind?” Pidge demanded.

“ _Everyone_ will fly off in different directions and try to lose them,” Hunk emphasized pointedly. “That means _no heroics_ , Keith!”

“…Fine.”

The five lions separated then, fleeing at top speed and losing sight of each other right away. Thankfully, Keith complied with Hunk’s final directive. After several heart-stopping moments that felt like eons, Hunk practically crashed the Black Lion into the forest that Allura had selected, nearly hitting the Yellow Lion in the process. He hastily freed himself from his armor and threw his garrison uniform on over his flight suit, wishing he’d had the forethought to remind the others to do the same and hoping they thought to do so on their own. He scrambled out of his lion, met Allura between the two lions, and exchanged a wordless, panicked nod with her. Then they took off together, bolting towards the nearby marketplace. Once there, they pushed themselves into the crowd, which was still, for the most part, warily eyeing the sky, though Old Voltron had already made itself scarce presumably in pursuit of New Voltron.

No sooner had Hunk realized his and Allura’s attire was out-of-place and liable to attract unwanted attention than an outfit was thrust directly into his hands. “Here,” Pidge said, standing in front of him with Lance and Keith at her side, each of them donning casual Altean clothes.

“How – That was _so fast_!” Allura lunged for the second outfit that Lance was retrieving from his likely-stolen satchel and examined it closely. Beaming, she looked back up and exclaimed, “This used to be my favorite shoe style! How did you know?”

“Lucky guess,” Lance grinned, winking cheekily at her. For once, Allura did not even comment on the half-hearted attempt at flirting.

“Seriously, how did you guys steal something so fast? I mean, you _did_ steal it, right?” Hunk checked.

Pidge shrugged. “Eh, it was nothing. The seller wasn’t very observant….”

“’It was nothing,’” Lance mimicked, scowling exaggeratedly at her. “Excuse you. Keith is the one who stole the clothes, and I’m the one who distracted the seller. It was nothing to _you_ because you didn’t do any of the work!”

“Like you have to _work_ at distracting people,” Pidge snarked.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Keith cut in, talking right over Lance’s responding snark, “Allura, we figured you might need to shapeshift a bit since there’s another you walking around, so we got some pretty loose clothes. Is that alright?”

“That’s perfect, Keith. Excellent thinking.”

A wave of calm washed over Hunk at the reassuringly familiar interactions between his teammates. Though circumstances were truly dismal, as long as the five of them were together and collected, everything would turn out fine in the end…, right? Certainly that reasoning was faulty at best, but that was the feeling that he always had, and so far it had never been wrong. Of course, if it ever was wrong, it would be too late to do anything about it, but then again, it wasn’t like disregarding that feeling would help matters anyway.

First Hunk, then Allura ducked into a bathroom to change. When she reemerged, she was about halfway between Keith’s and Pidge’s heights, with broad shoulders and a stocky torso. The shirt that had been picked out for her was more of a dress now, and the pants now had massive cuffs from being rolled up, but it was still a perfectly ordinary ensemble. Her skin color was a clear imitation of Coran’s own coloring, and Hunk wondered if that was intentional on her part or subconscious.

The five of them meandered through the streets, each of them doing their best to look as inconspicuous as possible while simultaneously keeping an eye out for Altean soldiers. Allura, in particular, was just awful at it, understandably caught up in her euphoria at being back on her home planet regardless of circumstance. The other four took care to keep her at their center, excusing it with the explanation that they didn’t want anyone to recognize her, which was not inaccurate anyway; despite her efforts, between her hair and her facial structure, she still looked remarkably similar to the princess Hunk had glimpsed in more than a few newspapers and other publications.

“We seem to be safe for the time being,” Allura murmured. “Perhaps we should start trying to find out exactly _when_ we are?”

Hunk nodded, veering off towards the row of vendors on the left, spying a stall that advertised free newspapers. With a nod to the seller, he plucked one of the papers and unfolded it.

Haggar’s face stared back at him from the pages.

“How’s that possible?” Pidge blurted out, peering over his shoulder.

“Shh!” Keith hissed, glancing around suspiciously at the various bystanders. Apart from a mildly curious look here and there, no one seemed to have noticed. Within seconds, no one was paying any attention to them at all.

In a lower voice, Pidge went on, “Seriously, how is that possible? We _just_ showed up – “ She broke off, brow furrowing in concentration as she started muttering to herself about the space-time continuum and the theory of relativity.

Allura plucked the newspaper from Hunk’s grasp and scanned it, growing troubled. “It says here that the witch depicted below arrived on Altea and was taken into custody three quintants ago.”

“That’s… good, right?” Lance said nervously. “Doesn’t that mean she can’t, y’know, mess up the timeline or anything?”

He glanced at Pidge, who frowned. “I guess so?” she hedged. “There’s a lot that we don’t understand about time travel – mostly because it’s, well, theoretically impossible – but theoretically, that makes sense.”

“Oh, so it’s theoretically impossible, but it theoretically makes sense?” Lance summarized dryly. “Thanks, Pidge, that’s _super_ helpful. Really clears everything up.”

Pidge shrugged. “Can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

“We have about two and a half decaphoebs before the war with Zarkon starts,” Allura continued in lieu of relaying the actual date to them. “And…,” her voice took on a contemplative but hesitant quality, “eight and a half decaphoebs before… it ends.”

“What else does it say?” Keith asked. “Anything useful? I mean, anything useful about Haggar?”

Allura shook her head. “Just says that she keeps claiming to be Honerva, and that the people interrogating her still haven’t managed to make her tell the truth about who she is or where she came from, but they _have_ managed to suppress her alchemy using a pair of handcuffs designed by… King Alfor, and… ironically, Queen Honerva of Daibazaal.”

Silence engulfed them as Allura folded up the newspaper and passed it to Lance, who stored it in his satchel.

“…Okay, we need to regroup and… figure this out,” Hunk decided, although perhaps ‘decision’ was too generous a descriptor for his directive. “We can’t stay out here forever anyway. Let’s get back to the lions as inconspicuously as we can and try to come up with some kind of plan.” _And make some real decisions,_ he added mentally.

“Sounds good,” Keith agreed. “Our lions are just past yours and Allura’s anyway. We passed Black and Yellow on the way here.”

They did a decent job at staying inconspicuous, succeeding at avoiding any unwanted attention. Soon, they were back into the forest they had started in, though still quite a ways from their lions. They couldn’t have been more than a handful of yards from them when a sudden commotion deeper into the forest sent flocks of birds scattering into the sky and dozens of small woodland creatures stampeding past them. Each of the paladins halted where they stood, activating their bayards in case there was danger up ahead. However, Hunk noted a disturbance in the sky, and with a jolt, realized that several figures were bolting into the distance.

“Crap, crap, crap, this is _not good_!” Hunk yelped, forgoing subtlety as he took off crashing through the forest with his team in tow. It was too late, and he knew it, but somehow it was still a shock, a horrifying, paralyzing shock, to reach his lions and discover that they were indeed too late.

The lions weren’t there.

The lions weren't there, and looking at the sad, empty clearing felt like looking down at your feet to discover that the earth was crumbling to ashes where you stood, or like lifting the blanket off of your bed so that you could crawl inside at the end of a long day only to discover that your hands had phased right through the blanket and the sheets and the mattress and the bedframe. The lions were their transportation, and their weapons, and their homes, and their friends, and now they were gone. And they hadn't been taken. There was no rescuing them. They had just left.

Hunk took a deep, shaky breath. No breakdowns. Not yet. _One thing at a time_ , he chanted at himself. _One thing at a time._

“Lance, Keith, Pidge,” he said with steadiness that surprised him. “Go check for your lions.”

The three of them shook themselves from their stupor and nodded at him before Keith led them further through the forest. Hunk and Allura stood together in the clearing.

“Any ideas?” Allura inquired softly.

The answer was a resounding ‘no,’ but Hunk pulled himself together enough to say gallantly, “I’ll think of something.”

Their comrades returned with matching looks of hopelessness.

“None of them were there?” Hunk guessed, a pit forming in his stomach.

They shook their heads.

Faintly, Lance asked, “What the hell are we supposed to do now?”

No one had an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you've got time, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!


	2. In the Winter Night Sky

> And in the winter night sky, ships are sailing  
>  Looking down on these bright blue city lights  
>  And they won’t wait, and they won’t wait, and they won’t wait  
>  We’re here to stay, we’re here to stay, we’re here to stay
> 
> King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men

#### Chapter 1: In the Winter Night Sky

“…and _that’s_ from the planet Kelara, all the way in the Bakarvis galaxy.”

“Oh, that’s neat,” Hunk said with feigned interest. “And they make…, er, scarves?”

The shopkeeper made a noise of frustration. “No, no, the scarves are produced right here in Altea! It’s written right there on the label! It’s the wool that comes from Kelara.”

“Ah. And the wool is from Indruls, right?”

“Absolutely not!” the shopkeeper exclaimed, sounding affronted. “We only use Qhel wool in this shop! Only the best for our customers! What kind of question….”

“Of course, of course,” Hunk hastily amended. While professing ignorance was generally the best way to retain a vendor’s attention, too much of it sometimes had the opposite effect of offending a vendor and turning them off from conversation completely. Thankfully, just like on Earth, most vendors were too preoccupied with selling their merchandise to notice that they were being slighted, which greatly benefitted Hunk, who was still too foreign to Altea’s customs to know when he was slighting someone.

Behind the shopkeeper, Lance slunk from the clothing section to the food section and sidled up to a display of canned goods. The average passerby might have thought he was merely examining the selection, his eyes casually roaming the top shelves, but Hunk spied his hand trailing along the cans on the lower shelves with intent. Several of the cans left in its wake were absent once his hand had passed over them, and the satchel hanging at his side grew heavier and heavier.

“We have a selection of matching hats over her,” the shopkeeper suggested, turning, to Hunk’s horror, towards a rack of hats that was directly between the shopkeeper and Lance.

“Oh, uh, that’s actually okay!” Hunk yelped. “I already have a hat – lots of hats – like a whole closet full – I’m actually a lot more curious about your, um, your collection of – of – “ his gaze frantically scanned nearby displays that would _not_ shine a spotlight on Lance’s misdeeds – “of camping backpacks! Yeah, I’m super duper into camping, it’s my favorite thing – “

“In _this_ weather?” the shopkeeper questioned skeptically. “I know you said you were new to these parts, but this is far from ideal camping weather. And it’s only going to get colder from here on out, you know.”

 _Believe me, I’m aware_ , Hunk thought unhappily. He tried not to let the thought show on his face. “Really? Wow, that’s a shame. Pretty cold planet, huh?”

The shopkeeper wrinkled his nose. “Just a cold area, unfortunately.”

“Well, anyway, I’m not here to stay.” _Man, I wish._ “My friends and I are heading to our home planet soon – “ _again, I wish…_ “ – so that’s where we’re gonna go camping.”

The shopkeeper hummed and embarked on the virtues of the various camping backpacks available. It wasn't long before Lance gave him the signal that he was done palming resources, at which point Hunk bid the shopkeeper farewell and headed away.

Some distance from the marketplace and civilization in general, the season’s icy winds only partially stifled by the trees surrounding them, Lance said brightly, “Alright, let’s see what I got!”

“Don’t you wanna wait ‘till we get back?” Hunk pointed out.

“Not if you wanna be _warm_.” Lance fished a scarf out of the bag and dangled it temptingly in front of Hunk.

“How – ?!” Hunk snatched the scarf out of the air, much to Lance’s audible amusement. “We were right next to this! How did you grab it? _When_ did you grab it?”

“Right after we got there,” Lance answered smugly. His satisfaction faded suddenly. Then, with forced cheer, he continued, “I’ve had lots of time to practice, you know! Shouldn’t be so surprised that I’m good at it now!”

“Okay, okay,” Hunk said agreeably. “You’re right, Lance. You’re a master thief and I should stop underestimating you.”

“There we go!” Lance grinned, his cheer visibly genuine now that the conversation had moved on.

“So how did the rest of your thieving go today? _Don’t_ pull out all the food!” Hunk corrected as Lance immediately began doing just that. “Just, you know – how much did you get?”

“More than usual, I think! It’s always easier in bigger shops though. Picking out one with a ‘Help Wanted’ sign on it was a good call, too; that place was definitely understaffed.” Lance threw an arm around Hunk’s shoulders as they continued walking, nearly at their destination now. “If we keep this up, we’ll be well-stocked for winter in no time!”

“Fall,” Hunk corrected, wishing at once that he hadn’t when Lance’s face fell.

“Right. Fall.”

Altea was slightly closer to the sun in its solar system than Earth and therefore generally slightly warmer, but on the plateau where they had landed, one of the highest and furthest north inhabitable places on Altea, it was hard to tell. The climate already averaged the lower end of temperatures that humans could comfortably survive in the outdoors, and Allura had informed them that they were in fact only experiencing the _beginning_ of Altea’s _second coldest_ season. While food was, as Lance had said, unlikely to be a problem, shelter definitely, definitely was, and they were no closer to solving it than they had been when they’d first arrived at this time and place.

“Lance! Hunk! Lance! Hunk!”

Allura’s excited greeting, and hugs so violent that they bordered on physical assault, were how they discovered that they had arrived at their little makeshift camp in the woods.

“Hey guys,” Pidge called out, not bothering to either rise from her seat surrounded by electronics nor even glance their way.

“How did the crime go?!” Allura asked. “Anything interesting happen?!”

Allura routinely tried to live vicariously through everyone who left camp, since she was very bored and a bit stir-crazy. They had dyed, cut, and styled her hair. She had tried about a million different body shapes and skin tones. The general consensus, however, was that she still looked far too much like Altea’s princess to spend too much time in public, especially since Alteans in particular were used to paying more attention to the shape and features of one’s face than any of those other physical attributes. With few exceptions, she was essentially on house arrest…, for a given value of ‘house.’

“Crime went well,” Hunk confirmed. “And, uh…, we got these scarves? They were made with wool from Qhels, from Kelara! That’s… cool, right?” He had not, in fact, ever heard of a ‘Qhel’ before; to the best of his knowledge, most wool on Altea was from Indruls, a quadriplegic species that mostly resembled sheep, barring their webbed feet and bat-like wings.

“For you, Princess!” With a flourish, Lance retrieved and presented the most excessively glittery scarf Hunk had ever laid eyes on, one side completely decked out with sequins in various shades of pink. It was probably actually a kid’s scarf, come to think of it.

Allura was pleased all the same. “Thank you, Lance! This is wonderful!” She wrapped the un-sequined side around her neck, leaving the sequins bright and bold on the outside. “Ah, Qhel wool – yes, I can tell. This is much softer than Indrul or Yophrin wool.”

Lance took a few steps toward Pidge and her intimidating army of tech, assimilated from the devices he had managed to palm on the rare occasion that they were being sold at poorly-manned stalls at the local bazaar. “Any trace of the Atlas?” Lance asked optimistically, which was also routine. “Or the Blade of Marmora? Or our lions?”

Everyone turned to the resident genius expectantly, but the look on Pidge’s face was answer enough, and they all deflated.

“I wonder when they’ll turn up,” Lance mused. “I mean, it’s already been…, what, five months?”

“Nearly,” Pidge sighed.

 _They might not turn up,_ everyone thought, but nobody dared to say.

Tonelessly, Pidge continued, “I’ll run a deep scan tonight. Maybe it’ll… pick something up or something.”

“We’ll find them eventually, guys,” Lance declared confidently. “We just have to keep trying.”

Unfounded though it certainly was, Lance’s optimism was something of a balm these days. At least, most days it was. On the worse days it was more like sandpaper, but Hunk liked to think that just like sandpaper, it still served to scrape all of the emotional dirt and grit off of them, leaving them nice and smooth.

Allura engaged Lance in a sparring session while Pidge set about finagling with her tech army, so Hunk occupied himself with sorting through Lance’s ill-gotten gains. “Does anyone know if Keith will be back in time for dinner?” he asked the group at large.

“I received a transmission from him about an hour ago,” Pidge replied. “He said not to expect him until midnight, maybe later.”

Lance scowled as Allura pulled him to his feet from where he had been knocked down. “I should be out there with him,” he complained. “I’m sneaky. I’m ridiculously sneaky. I’ve snuck right past Galra before in their own bases.”

His self-exaltation might have sounded petulant and arrogant if Hunk didn’t know any better, but truthfully it came from a place of concern. Lance was unhappy that Keith went out on missions alone these days, and frankly, so was Hunk. They all were. But Keith had the benefit of all his experience working with the Blade of Marmora. He was stealthier than any of them, and he was used to either solo missions or a much higher caliber of stealth than Lance was capable of, and despite his outward disagreements, Lance knew that. Little though any of them liked it, Keith was much safer on his own.

Soon all four present paladins sat down to eat dinner. As they ate, Pidge suggested to Lance, “Why don’t you take a trip out into the city tomorrow? It’s been a while since we got some real news out here, and I know you won’t mind being somewhere a little warmer, even if it’s only for a day.”

Once they had realized Allura wasn’t going anywhere populated very often at all, Lance had started compiling thorough reports on the current events of Altea to bring home for Allura to parse through and compare to her memories. The marketplace had newspapers, of course, but excluding major, interstellar events like a powerful witch materializing out of a hole in the sky wearing an advanced mechasuit that rivaled Voltron itself, their location was a little too remote for any extraordinary news to reach them. Of course, it seemed to be a mostly pointless endeavor since not a single thing had differed from the original timeline so far, but it gave Allura an opportunity to feel productive, so they kept it up anyway. If she had ever realized she was being humored, she had thus far given no indication of it.

“Heh, you’re not wrong….” Lance sat up straight. “Hey, Allura, do you think the people who live in the city might visit a vacation home somewhere warmer when it gets cold out here?”

“Probably not until winter,” Allura responded slowly, “but some do, yes.”

“You’re thinking of squatting in someone’s home while they’re on vacation?” Pidge perked up. “Lance, that’s… actually pretty smart! Hunk, you think that could work?”

“It’s definitely worth a try,” Hunk agreed. He grinned at Lance. “Good idea, buddy!”

Lance beamed. “I’ll ask around about who might be going on vacation tomorrow, then. I bet anyone who has a vacation home has a pretty sweet set-up in the city, too. Maybe they’ll – “

A nearby rustling effectively cut off the conversation. All four of them launched themselves from their seats, dinner forgotten, and summoned their bayards to their hands. The caution was for nothing, however; Keith stumbled out of the woods.

“Keith!” Allura exclaimed, setting her bayard down and striding towards him. “You’re early!” She placed her hands on either side of his forehead, undoing the alchemical alteration she had performed on him before he left to bring his Galra traits closer to the surface. Hunk, Lance, and Pidge were safe in the marketplace and the city, since no one knew _every_ race of alien and Altea was a cultural hotspot. Where Keith went, however, it was less noticeable to appear as the neighboring race.

“Someone was getting suspicious,” Keith explained. He followed Allura back to the haphazard dining area and sitting with them. “Thought it was better to get out of there.”

“You made the right call,” Hunk reassured him, handing him a plate of dinner. After all this time, he still couldn’t shake the habit of making five meals, no matter how rarely the fifth was eaten by Keith rather than divvied up as a snack for the other four. At this point, it was practically a superstition of his; part of him felt like if he made that fifth meal, it meant Keith would come home safe and sound for sure. It was silly, but it brought him comfort, and that was in short enough supply that he would take it where he could.

As Keith wolfed down his food with an appreciative nod to Hunk, they gathered nearer to him. “So what’s the word at the prison in the capital?” Pidge quizzed. “How’s the interrogation of Haggar going?”

Keith shrugged. “Not well. She says that she’s Honerva, that she’s Zarkon’s wife, that she’s one of King Alfor’s closest and oldest friends. Same old, same old.”

“What is her game?” Allura wondered out loud. “She has to know that that won’t get her out of there. How is she planning to escape?”

“However she is, it won’t be good,” Keith stated darkly. “She’s got to have some kind of plan in store… For all we know, she managed to enact some scheme before they even caught her. She’s crafty, remember? We _can’t_ underestimate her.” His swift consumption of sustenance slowed. “Actually…” He glanced curiously at Allura. “Some of the guards have been saying that they might get her to crack soon. Apparently a few expert… interrogators have been called in. Something about, er, Urans?”

Allura’s eyes flew wide open. “Urians?”

“Yeah, Urians, that’s right.”

She hummed thoughtfully. “They must truly be afraid of her to work with Urians. The Urians initiated one of the most violent, gruesome wars to ever involve the Coalition,” she explained. “And in doing so, they committed just about every war crime in the book. At least, that’s the way they taught it in history class.”

“The way the guards described it, it didn’t sound like just interrogation that they were good at,” Keith pressed. “Are they torturers?”

“Oh, no,” Allura dismissed. “They’re not torturers. Not really interrogators either though. They’re mind-readers, much more advanced than what Altean alchemy has achieved yet.”

“Oh.” Keith relaxed. “Good. Torture, I’m sure she could withstand. Mind-reading, though – well, she’s probably got defenses against that too, but who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“By ‘lucky,’ you mean she might spill everything about our timeline to them, with potentially catastrophic ramifications,” Pidge pointed out.

“Well, yeah, and her plans. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like a front-row seat to hear about her plans, but I’d rather King Alfor did than no one at all. I think we can all agree that her succeeding is the absolute worst case scenario.”

Pidge grimaced. “Fair enough.”

“So, we’re just skating over Keith having absolutely no problem with someone getting tortured?” Lance interjected. “Just curious.”

Keith scowled at her. “Look, generally, sure, I’m against torture. But it’s Haggar. I mean, God knows she’s done worse than that to others, to _Shiro_.”

“So when are the mind-readers getting here?” Hunk interjected quickly. He wasn’t sure whether or not that was about to become an argument, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

“About two movements.”

“So I hate to be the one to bring it up,” Pidge said, “or to have it brought up at all, but, uh…, that means we have two movements to decide what we’re gonna do about Haggar.”

No one asked what she meant. It was, obviously, the same question that had haunted each of them day-in and day-out since their arrival, broached only very, very carefully, and never discussed for very long at one time. Did they break Haggar out to make her send them home? Or did they stay in this timeline and try to save Altea?

“You know what I want to do,” Allura sighed, pulling away from them. The statement was neither judgmental nor pointed, simply factual. She would always have done anything to save Altea, and she still would, even at the cost of changing the timeline and risking all of their births. Hunk understood, and he thought the other three did, too. Millions of lives versus theirs and their families’? Objectively, it was no contest. Especially when he considered the fact that saving Altea meant defeating the Galra, which meant countless other lives and even entire other races would be saved.

Hunk himself didn’t know what he wanted to do. He _should_ save Altea. It was the right thing to do, and the responsible thing to do, and the kind of choice that a real leader would be able to make so that his teammates wouldn’t have to. But… Hunk was barely even an adult yet, alright? Heck, he wasn’t even old enough to drink by Earth standards. And he was _tired_ , and he just didn’t want to do any of this anymore. This was so far from what he’d signed up for back when he first became the Black Paladin. Everything was so much simpler back then.

Keith looked like he was bracing himself for something, and Hunk knew what he was going to say a second before he said it. “We don’t have a choice. We have to save Altea. We’re the defenders of the universe. Don’t we have an obligation to fight for the greater good? Isn’t _this_ the greater good right now? We could stop the war with the Galra before it even starts!”

Across the table, Lance crossed his arms, his face torn between betrayal and resignation. Before he got the chance to express either emotion, however, Pidge pointed out, “Even if you’re right – I’m not saying you are, but I’m also not saying you’re not – the fact is, if there’s no war with the Galran empire, the Blue Lion never goes to Earth. If the Blue Lion doesn’t go to Earth, we never become the Paladins of Voltron. If we never become the Paladins of Voltron – “

“ – we never end up in this time period at all,” Lance finished grimly. “And then… what? Do we get locked into some kind of – some kind of paradox… loop… thing?”

Startled, Pidge said, “Uh…, yeah, pretty much.”

Lance stared, aghast. “What? But – That’s not – What I said just now was barely coherent, so what do you mean ‘pretty much?’”

Pidge threw her hands in the air. “Congratulations, you just summed up Earth’s understanding of the space-time continuum,” she drawled. “Paradox-loop-thing is the closest thing anyone has to a solid theory on what happens when you mess with it… well, to the best of my knowledge, anyway.”

“Isn’t your knowledge the best?” Keith objected.

Pidge looked flattered for a heartbeat, then miserable. “Normally I’d agree, but I never really studied time travel,” she admitted sheepishly. “I mean, it’s not like it’s possible with science, anyway! It’s only possible with _magic_.”

“Alchemy is not ‘magic,’” Allura protested. “It’s science, it – “

“Allura, please,” Pidge groaned, dropping her head onto the table face-first. “I already have a headache from _this_ conversation. Don’t give me another one.”

There was still another question left to be asked, one that none of them had dared to utter in the five months they had spent stranded. It was a daunting set of words that had thus far only been given voice by tentative glances, nervous body language, loaded silences, and clumsily shifted conversation topics. Hunk straightened his back and broached the subject for the first time. “Lance, what do you think?”

Lance didn’t answer at first, though it was clear from his face that he had heard the question. His crossed arms untangled themselves from each other to wrap further around his torso, and he pulled away slightly, curling into himself with a somber, distant expression. Hunk kind of wanted to withdraw the question, and by the looks on their faces, the others were thinking the same thing, even Keith. Finally, Lance said blankly, “I don’t know. But I’ll do whatever you think is best, Hunk.”

…Somehow, that was simultaneously the best and worst thing he could have said. After all, Hunk had no idea what was best. But at least he knew now that no matter what he picked, his best bud would have his back.

One of Pidge’s devices suddenly emitted a low whine. Seconds later, another beeped, and then it beeped again, and it continued beeping at a relatively sedate pace as Pidge shot them all baffled looks and slid from her seat to investigate. Then a different, strangely elongated instrument began spinning where it sat, faster and faster. By the time Hunk had joined Pidge at her station, the entire tech army was in an uproar.

“Do you guys maybe wanna turn that crap down?” Keith hissed, looking wildly around as if enemies would spring from the surrounding woods at any moment.

“If I’m agreeing with Keith, you know it’s serious,” Lance put in, earning a baleful look from the aforementioned paladin.

“Guys, shut up!” Pidge exclaimed, gesturing vigorously at one of the screens set up before her. “It’s a disturbance!”

“In… the force?”

“No, you idiot!” Pidge snapped at Lance. “In the sky! In space! Right where we – “

Before she could finish speaking, the sky finished her sentence for her by splitting open and spitting the Atlas into existence.

For a heartbeat, all five of them just stared, slack-jawed.

Then Hunk snapped to his senses. “Pidge, send them a signal,” he barked, scrambling towards the tent where his old paladin armor was stored. “Or a transmission, or something – let them know we’re down here! Allura, Lance, Keith, gear up – you’re with me!”

They equipped their armor as fast as Hunk had ever witnessed, and then they took off into the dark forest, racing towards town. Cursing himself, Hunk wished he had given Lance permission to steal that hoverbike, or whatever Alteans called it, when he had seen it the other day. It would have been such a loud, flashy theft, but if there was even a chance they could have gotten away with it, it would have been worth it for this moment. Every second spent running was a second that Atlas might soon spend fighting off Voltron by itself.

Sprinting at his side, Lance asked, breathless with exertion and excitement, “What’s the plan, big guy?”

“Hijack some pods from the spacecraft dealership,” Hunk panted, raising his voice so that all three could hear him. “Make the rest up as we go.”

“Oh, so the usual,” Lance quipped.

Halfway to town, Keith called out, “Hunk! Voltron’s approaching them now!”

“Got it,” Hunk acknowledged, continuing to lead them into town. They would almost certainly be too late at this point, but they had to try.

“Hunk – “ Hunk skidded to a halt as Keith tugged on his shoulder and pointed up. “Look.”

Hunk, Lance, and Allura followed the direction of Keith’s finger to the sky, where Atlas, by all appearances, was surrendering. Transfixed by confusion and helplessness, they watched as Voltron looped some kind of glowing, weirdly form-fitting lasso around the Atlas. (“Whoa, when do our lions unlock _that_ power?” Lance questioned, seeming to forget for a moment that they had no lions, to which Allura responded absently, “That’s not a lion ability. That’s some sort of enlarged alchemy suppressing rope. Father must have had it made after we and Haggar showed up.”) Then Voltron led the Atlas down to the Altea, somewhere out of view from the paladins.

“Maybe this is a good thing,” Allura said hesitantly. “We were never going to save the entire ship. But individual prisoners, even one at a time….”

She looked up at Keith, who nodded, his face steely. “I can get them out,” he vowed. “It won’t be the same prison they keep Haggar in because that one’s too small, so it’ll be a prison I’m not familiar with yet, and that means I can’t be sure how fast I can get inside. But there’s no time to waste. I’ll go start reconnaissance.”

“I’m coming too,” Lance asserted immediately.

“ _Lance_ ,” Hunk cried, and Allura and Keith made similar noises of exasperation.

“Look, I get it, okay? I’m not as stealthy as Keith. I’m the sharpshooter, he’s the – spy – person – whatever. I get it. But there is _no way_ you can tell me this is a one-person job. There’s just no way.” He met Keith’s indecisive gaze. “If you really believe that even now, it’s not worth me holding you back – “

“I never think that about you,” Keith protested at once.

“Yeah, you do,” Lance disagreed mildly. “It’s okay. Most of the time you’re right, at least in this area. But today you’re not.”

They looked at each other for a long, long time. Eventually, Keith nodded.

Hunk glanced between the two of them. “If you’re both sure, then… fine. Let us know as soon as you find a way in, and Allura, Pidge, and I will come do whatever we can to help.”

“Be careful, both of you,” Allura told them.

“Always am, Princess,” Lance alleged with a wink.

Keith rolled his eyes, adding more reassuringly, “We will be.”

Lance and Keith continued on their journey to towards the city with a new end goal in mind. Hunk and Allura headed back to camp.

“You’re back!” Pidge exclaimed in relief. Then she looked around, growing dismayed. “Uh…, some of you are back. Why are all of you not back?”

Hunk explained their decision to her. She was only slightly comforted.

“Are you sure that was the right choice? Letting Lance go with Keith?”

“Lance may not be on quite the same level,” Allura said firmly, “but he’s not helpless either. He can hold his own out there. I have faith in him.”

Whether Pidge opened her mouth to agree or disagree, they would never know, for that was the moment something large and invisible whooshed past them overhead, taking down a large chunk of nearby trees. They rushed towards the object, made evident to their imperceptive eyes by the crater that formed. The air inside the crater was briefly distorted; then the visage of an escape pod flickered several times; then, finally, the visage became permanent, indicating that whatever cloaking mechanism had obviously been haphazardly applied was either shut down or broken.

The door slid open. Matt disembarked the pod.

“ _Matt_!” Pidge shrieked, launching herself at him. Upon impact, Matt stumbled backwards, nearly knocked off his feet despite her negligible stature.

They clutched at each other for several moments while Hunk and Allura exchanged shocked, pleased looks. Then a familiar, thickly accented voice complained from within the pod, “Hellooo? Can you hug elsewhere? I would like to leave this tiny, cramped space soon if you don’t mind!”

Matt and Pidge broke apart and stepped to the side, Pidge craning her neck to peer inside the pod. Out stepped first Slav, then Veronica, then Coran.

In a blur, Allura slammed into Coran, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re here,” she gasped, barely audible as her voice was muffled by his shoulder. “You’re really here.”

Finally, in the doorway of the pod, Shiro appeared. At once, Hunk felt half of his stress, despair, and inadequacy bleed away. Shiro would know what to do next. Shiro would be able to figure something out. Even if he couldn’t, he would be there to support Hunk, and they could figure something out together. More than that, though, with Shiro and Coran there, their family was whole once again. The seven of them had faced impossible odds in the past. They could do it again.

Once Allura, Hunk, and Pidge had exchanged hugs with Shiro and Coran, Pidge ran towards her equipment, shouting over her shoulder, “I’m gonna send Lance and Keith a transmission right now! They’re gonna be so happy to see you guys!”

“Wait, a transmission?” Coran looked around, brow furrowed in confusion. “Where are they?”

Matt looked around, too, impressed and vaguely perplexed. “How… did you guys get all this set up so fast?”

“So fast…?” Hunk echoed. He frowned, something clicking into place in his head. “Wait. How long has it been since you saw us go through that portal Haggar made?”

“About fifteen minutes,” Veronica supplied. “We were right behind you, but the Atlas wasn’t compatible with the rift. Luckily, the Balmera showed up. Apparently Allura infused it with her energy at some point…?”

Allura straightened her back. “That’s right, about two decaphoebs ago.”

Shiro shot her a quizzical look at the timeline she had provided, but didn’t say anything.

“The Balmerans were able to infuse our ship with that energy,” Veronica continued. “Our ship was already nearly compatible since it came from the Castle of Lions, but the Blade of Marmora wasn’t at all. That’s why they’re not here yet. As soon as the Balmerans are done with them, they’ll follow us.”

“But… that will destroy the Balmera,” Pidge said uncertainly.

“They know that,” Coran answered gravely. “They said Allura already granted their home more time than it had. Thankfully, they agreed to board the Blade afterwards, but the Balmera itself will certainly not survive.”

Hunk’s heart sank. He suspected that would not be the last sacrifice they made to take care of Haggar once and for all. Regardless, there was nothing he could do for Shay and her people from where he was, and there were regrettably more pressing matters to attend to. “So to clarify,” he began, “you _just_ saw us go through the rift, pretty much?”

“Well, yeah,” Matt replied.

“Oh, man. You guys are gonna wanna sit down for this. We’ve got one heck of a story for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter will be out on 12/31.


	3. The Valley of Kings

> Do you walk in the valley of kings?  
>  Do you walk in the shadow of men  
>  Who sold their lives to a dream?
> 
> Glitter & Gold by Barns Courtney

#### Chapter 2: The Valley of Kings

The night after their reunion with select members of the Atlas crew, Hunk, Allura, Pidge, Shiro, Coran, Matt, Veronica, and Slav crept through the dark, empty woodland that surrounded Altea’s most heavily fortified prison. The only sounds to be heard were leaves rustling in the breeze, ambiguous animal noises, and Coran rehearsing lines under his breath but still a bit too loudly for Hunk’s liking.

His muttering broke off when they heard rustling much louder than any breeze or small animal should be producing disturbingly close to them. “That’s either a very angry klanmüirl or an enemy,” Coran hissed.

“Or,” Lance interjected, stepping out of the shadows followed closely by Keith, who now donned a guard uniform, “it’s the paladins you told to meet you here.” He looked around at all of them, grinning. “Man, is it good to see you guys again!”

While Lance and Keith exchanged hugs with their long-lost friends and relatives, Pidge pointed out, “Actually, I told you to meet us _at_ the prison, not…” she checked her tablet, “nearly a quarter mile from it?”

“Okay, first off, you’re exaggerating. Second, we got bored. You guys take too long.”

“More importantly,” Keith cut in, “we thought we’d warn you that we could hear Coran from where we were, so maybe tone it down before you get any closer.”

As they resumed their journey to the prison, Lance whispered to the group at large, “So what’s the plan? All the transmission said was to meet you all there and make sure Keith had a uniform. I guess we’re planning a prison break?”

“Good guess,” Pidge replied dryly.

Lance flickered her on the arm. Unfortunately for him, her arm was armored, so it hurt him instead of her.

Snorting at him, Shiro explained, “Pidge’s transmission to us was basically the same, just a set of coordinates and a warning that it wasn’t you five in the lions. We were all pretty disoriented up there, so when I got the message, I decided the top priority was to get at least one pod of people out to touch base with you and go from there.” He grimaced. “I was planning to send Krolia as the fifth passenger, but she pointed out that if I were in the Atlas when they took it in, they might have been able to access its full power.”

Keith started. “Mom’s – she’s here? In that prison?”

Shiro nodded. “Kolivan sent her to join the Atlas when we discovered it would take longer for the Balmerans to enhance his ship than ours.”

“Balmerans?” Lance echoed.

“Long story,” Veronica answered. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Now our top priority is getting our crew out before the Urians show up,” Shiro went on, “and getting our ship out before they tinker with it at all.”

“If I know myself, I’ll be on the first trip out to investigate it,” Coran divulged wisely. “Well, my old self, anyway. Or, rather, my young self. _Younger_ , I mean, because I’m perfectly young. Although it is actually more of an alternate self now because it’s a self who has experienced events that this self has not.”

“Anyway,” Shiro pressed before Coran could go on, “Lance, Keith, you’ll be with Allura and me. We’re going after the crew. Matt, Veronica, and Slav are going after the ship. It’s too big to be stored inside the prison, so it must be outside somewhere, and that means it can blast its way off of Altea. Hunk, Pidge, and Coran are going to cover our tracks. Once everyone is out, we’ll regroup nearby; Allura can lead us to the meeting spot, and Coran will lead the other two teams. Then we’re heading for a nearby planet. Slav found one that’s abandoned and relatively large, with caves that – well, long story short, it’s definitely the safest place for us right now. When we’re all safe – as safe as we can be right now, at least – we’ll compose ourselves and discuss how we’re going to move forward from there.

“To get us into the prison, we’ll need your help specifically, Keith. You’re going to pose as a Galran soldier like you normally do, only this time, you’ll have Coran escorting you, pretending to be this period’s Coran. He’ll talk your way through the prison into the security center, where you’re going to plant Pidge’s, uh…”

“Deactivator,” Pidge supplied, handing over the aforementioned gadget as she spoke. “I wanted to name it the Pidginator, actually, but Hunk said that was too vague.” The deactivator was a wide, silver, metallic wristband with a single dark gray button on it. It had been in progress practically since they’d arrived, but had been completed just a few weeks ago. Its function was, as its name implied, to deactivate all electronic equipment within a certain radius. Keith brought it with him every time he went to investigate, well, anything just in case he needed it.

“Why am I planting it?” Keith asked dubiously as he accepted it and secured it on his wrist under his sleeve. “Can’t I just turn it on when we get there like I normally do?”

“About that,” Coran began.

“Oh, no, buddy.” Matt patted him on the shoulder and reminded him, as kindly and politely as anyone could, “It took you about three hours to explain the setup of the prison to _us_ , and most of us are certifiable geniuses. I’ll handle it this time, okay?”

(“Somehow I think we’re being insulted,” Lance muttered to Keith.)

“This prison is more complex and convoluted than anything I ever encountered as a rebel. First off, you saw the outside of this place? Huge, towering stone walls? Well, there’s three of them, by which I mean there’s a huge stone wall that goes all the way around the actual prison, and there’s another stone wall that goes all the way around that wall, and there’s _another_ stone wall that goes all the way around _that_ wall. Each of those walls is outfitted with some kind of alchemical barrier of King Alfor’s invention that prevents wireless electronic interference, including the outer wall of the prison itself. So if you use the deactivator between any two walls, or between the innermost wall and the outside of the prison itself, it won’t have an impact on any technology on the other side of either of those walls. Similarly, every section of the inside of the prison is blocked off the same way.”

Keith frowned. “Then how do the guards communicate?”

“There are security cameras everywhere inside, right? Each and every camera is wired, and the wires all connect to the security center. The guards’ communicators are actually connected to the cameras, not to each other. The cameras send all transmissions back to the security center through the same wires that deliver the footage, and the computers in the security center pass all those transmissions onto their final destination via those wires. That’s why you’re transporting the deactivator to the security center; once you do, all footage and communication will be blocked, so no one will be able to send or call for backup.”

“That is convoluted,” Lance agreed, shuddering.

Matt grimaced. “It gets worse. The prison was intentionally designed as a sort of maze, so anyone unfamiliar with it would have a pretty much impossible time finding their way around without a map. And… it gets worse than that, too, because a map doesn’t really… exist? Not a complete one, anyway. Every staff member receives only a map of the specific route or routes that they need in order to complete their specific assignment or assignments.”

“Oh, good,” Lance said faintly. “Because this wasn’t difficult enough already.”

“That’s not foolproof, though,” Keith commented, ignoring the disbelieving look Lance gave him. “Because they could still just exchange those partial maps with each other, right? So someone could theoretically build their own complete map from that.”

“Eventually, they certainly could,” Coran conceded. “Though it was technically against the rules to exchange maps, there was no real way of preventing it. And, of course, assignments changed sometimes, so the same person might have received maps of multiple routes over the course of their career here. And obviously guards still got lost sometimes, and you could hardly make a rule against people getting lost, now could you? So a guard could have pretended to be lost, and if they were a talented enough actor, they could have explored a great deal of the prison that way. None of the steps we took were intended to be _foolproof_ so much as they were intended to be redundancies, a series of overlapping obstacles designed to deter, hinder, and stall intruders. It was a very effective system, too; we never had a single break-in or break-out.

“But!” Coran puffed out his chest and twirled his mustache. “None of those steps were designed with _me_ in mind, either, for I was there when this prison was built, and I helped design the layout, and I visited many, many times. I certainly don’t need a map in order to deliver you to the security center, and once we get there, I’ll print out the maps that we’ll need to get to the crew and the ship.”

When they reached the prison, Hunk handed two of the three walkie talkies in their possession to Coran and Keith so they would each have one in case they got separated. Then Coran and Keith headed for the entrance to the outermost wall. With bated breath, Hunk listened as well as he could to the conversation that ensued when they arrived there. He couldn’t pick out words so much as voices, but Coran sounded perfectly natural, and the guards didn’t sound suspicious at all. Soon the conversation ended, presumably with entrance to the prison granted since there was no commotion indicative of a fight afterwards.

For ten agonizingly long minutes, the eight remaining members of the rescue mission waited in silence, each of them too tense and focused to make conversation. Finally, the walkie-talkie that stayed behind crackled to life. “Hey, it’s Keith. We’re here.”

Hunk sighed in relief. “Okay, awesome. Good job, buddy. Can you put Coran on so he can give us directions now?”

He passed the walkie-talkie to Slav, their least combat-capable companion. Then they headed in the direction of the entrance.

Before they were within sight of the two guards stationed there, Pidge activated her bayard into the second form she had unlocked in their time on Altea. Almost like Hunk’s miniturret-launching second form, Pidge’s was not so much a weapon as a weapon-launcher. It fired off little devices that vaguely resembled joy buzzers, only they were much more powerful; they would discharge a large electrical current upon impact with whatever surface they hit or landed on, serving to both fry nearby technology and knock nearby people unconscious.

She used that weapon to get them past the first three three sets of guards, safely and quietly delivering them to the entrance of the prison itself. Then Hunk and Lance stepped forward with their own bayards, clearing the final set of guards by knocking them unconscious with well-placed shots to their helmets, and then they were inside the prison.

The instinct that was instilled thoroughly in each guard during their decaphoeb of training, Coran had explained earlier, was to send an SOS to the security center upon first sight of intruders. Then they were supposed to attack and attempt to incapacitate the intruders themselves. However, in the event of as large a party as Hunk led, their goal was to avoid combat until sufficient backup arrived, and if combat was unavoidable or the lesser of two evils, they were to prioritize defense over offense.

Of course, none of the calls for backup got through, because the security center had been deactivated, so they were never attacked outright. As they neared the security center, however, with long-range fighters Hunk and Lance in the lead and mid-range fighters Pidge and Allura close behind, they did their best to take out everyone they encountered anyway to prevent anyone from verbally calling for backup.

Soon enough, they reunited with Keith and Coran in the security center. “’Scuse me, coming through,” Pidge announced, pushing past everyone. She drew a pair of scissors from a desk and snipped all of the wires that connected the computers to the rest of the prison. Then she disabled her deactivator, slid into a chair at one of the computers, and got to work. Within three minutes, they had thorough maps printed for each of them.

“Good luck, everyone,” Hunk said, handing one walkie-talkie to Shiro and another to Veronica, keeping the last for himself. “I’ll see you soon.”

They nodded and took off in separate directions, leading their respective teams and leaving Hunk with Pidge and Coran, the latter of whom was staying with them in case they needed someone to talk to a guard or translate something (they’d gotten pretty good at Altean over the past five months, but they weren’t quite fluent yet). Hunk sat beside Pidge at another computer to help her.

Their first objective was to erase the footage of Coran and Keith so that only the guards’ words connected Coran to the invasion so that they didn’t get this timeline’s Coran convicted of treason. After all, memories could be tampered with to make the guards believe Coran had been there when he hadn’t been, and without further proof, that would be the assumption given Coran’s status. Their second objective was to take the innocuous footage of the ten minutes preceding their arrival and stretch it over the time they’d already spent there and the time they were likely to spend there, making it harder for anyone who investigated the invasion to figure out which section of the footage had been tampered with.

“Almost done?” Hunk checked.

“Yep. Just gotta double-check… oh. Oh, quiznak.”

“Language, Number Five!” Coran scolded, leaning forward to peer over her shoulder. “What in the world… Number One, you’ll want to see this.”

Hunk read the message the security room had received now that Pidge's device had been shut down. Then he read it again. Then, still in disbelief, he read it a third time. “Guess this calls for a change of plans,” he said slowly. “We’ll never get an opportunity like this again.”

Pidge and Coran nodded, so Hunk turned on his walkie-talkie. “Shiro? Veronica? Listen, uh, we’re… we’re not gonna be meeting you guys.”

“What’s up?” Shiro asked.

“They cut a deal with Haggar,” Hunk revealed. “They said they’d give her a one-on-one meeting with Honerva if she used her alchemy to interrogate the Atlas crew. She’s on her way here right now. Based on when the message was received, she should be here any minute. We have to grab her while we have the chance.”

Haggar was, after all, their only way to get home if that was the course of action they chose. That was part of why their mission for so long had been to keep tabs on her and the official investigation into her background.

Although…

* * *

_”In exactly five million, nine hundred thousand, nine hundred and thirty-seven ticks – “_

_“Whoa, whoa – Slav, could you_ please _round that to the nearest, I don’t know, movement?”_

 _“…Fine. In_ approximately _eight movements, it won’t matter anyway. None of it will._

* * *

Hunk pushed both the deeply unsettling conversation and the wretched, irrationally guilty feeling it provoked from his mind. Now was not the time to think about either of those things. No matter what, getting Haggar still had to be their priority. They had to stop whatever she was planning, even if Hunk had no idea what she might have been planning this whole time from the inside of a prison cell. In fact, for all they knew, meeting with Honerva could be an important part of that plan.

“No way,” Shiro objected. “I’m not leaving the three of you here on Altea by yourselves.”

“Shiro – “

“No, Hunk. We don’t leave people behind. We’ll find another way to get her.”

“Shiro, there won’t be another way,” Hunk beseeched him. “If we let this chance go, there won’t be another one. You know there won’t. That’s _never_ been the way these things go.”

Shiro sighed heavily. “…Give me a second, Hunk.”

The walkie-talkie on Shiro’s end clicked off before Hunk could persist. He sighed, exchanging anxious glances with Pidge and Coran. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if Shiro vetoed this plan. Getting Haggar was worth risking – well, anything, because _not_ getting her automatically risked a heck of a lot more.

Several moments later, Shiro’s voice rung out from the walkie-talkie once again. “Once the crew is free, I’ll lead them back to the Atlas.” He sounded incredibly displeased with that plan. “Allura, Keith, and Lance are going to meet you three at the entrance and help capture Haggar. If you don’t make it to the Atlas in time for takeoff,” he added, growing sharper, “I _will_ take a pod from the Atlas back to your campsite, and you _will_ meet me there, and then all seven of us will figure out how to meet up with the Atlas.”

“Copy that, Shiro,” Hunk said, relaxing a little. He’d have preferred that Shiro went with the Atlas, where the former paladin was needed in order to power it up all the way, but he was relieved all the same because this was obviously the best compromise he was going to get. Besides, maybe it was selfish or immature of him, but he didn’t really want to break the seven up them up either.

A handful of minutes later, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran pressed themselves against the outer wall of the fortress, cloaked in shadows. The guards who had been stationed there were still unconscious, but they were also newly bounded by the handcuffs Pidge had snagged from the security center on their way out, just in case. Not long after they’d stationed themselves there, Pidge hissed, “Guys, I see the others.”

Regrettably, that was the moment Hunk registered the headlights incoming from the prisoner transport vehicle that was steadily nearing them. Before the vehicle could get too close, he darted into his three friends’ line of sight and signaled via urgent, exaggerated gesticulation that they would soon have company. Then he retreated back to the darkness.

From his position, he saw Lance and Allura hiding on the other side of the wall. Between them and Hunk, Keith positioned himself in the entrance, posing as a Galra soldier once again.

The vehicle rode up to said entrance and parked there. Then the driver opened her door and strode towards Keith. “Hey, I’m here with our mystery witch.” She held out a tablet and a stylus, which he received with minimal hesitance. “Here’s my badge and – “

The guard in the passenger’s seat exited and opened the backdoor, letting the chained Haggar and a third guard extricate themselves from the vehicle. As all three of them made contact with the metal exterior of the transport, Pidge lunged forward, bayard in hand, and slammed her shock katar against the ride. The three foes hardly had time to be surprised before they were out cold, done in by the mild electric shock.

The driver spun around. “What the quiznak – “

Allura stepped forward and knocked the driver firmly on the head with the butt of her own bayard. She toppled over, unconscious.

“Well, that was easy,” Lance remarked cheerfully.

Hunk warily approached Hagger, on guard in case she had some kind of defense against electrocution. However, she did not stir where she was lying. In fact, she was so remarkably still that Hunk checked her pulse to be safe. Then he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. “Good news, guys. It looks like we’ve got plenty of time to make it to the Atlas.”

* * *

Hidden by the cloaking device that Veronica, Matt, and Slav had administered, the Atlas successfully navigated its way to the planet that Slav had picked out, and so far there seemed to have been no enemies on their tail. As Shiro and Coran secured Haggar in her cell, Hunk secured himself in the kitchen, busying himself with the creation of some celebratory, stress-relieving cookies. His four teammates followed him in, as did Matt and Veronica, evidently reluctant to leave the sides of their respective younger siblings.

“Have you and Shiro decided on a long-term plan now that everyone is here?” Lance asked, more than a little apprehensive. “I mean, not _everyone_ , but Veronica said it took fifteen minutes for the Atlas to get here and that it would probably take the Marmorites another five, so they should show up, what, two months from now? Maybe a month and a half? So… I guess it’s time to make real, serious plans now, huh? Like, about what we’re doing with Haggar? And, y’know, our time?”

Hunk nearly dropped what he was working on, caught off-guard by the line of questioning.

“Ah… Maybe we should go sit down to talk about this,” Matt put forth uncertainly.

Everyone waited for Hunk to put aside his work. Then the group traveled to the nearby cafeteria and seated themselves. All of them, barring Keith, were looking at Lance in a mixture of alarm and sympathy.

“Lance,” Hunk said quietly. “Keith. There’s something you need to know. About the possibility of Haggar getting us back to our time.”

Lance went round-eyed with curiosity and trepidation. Beside him, Keith froze, eyes narrowing minutely as he drew his own conclusions from everyone’s reactions. “We can’t get back, can we?” the red paladin realized out loud.

Lance looked sharply at Keith. “No, that’s not…” He trailed off, looking back at Hunk. “That’s not… true…?”

Hunk swallowed. It was a bad day, he thought, to be the leader of Voltron.

There was no sugarcoating it, so he explained bluntly, “According to Slav, the… deconstruction of our timeline already started. It started as soon Haggar went through the time rift. In three months, our timeline is going to be gone completely.”

As Lance’s jaw went slack, Keith questioned pragmatically, “What does that mean for us? Are all of us going to get deconstructed too?”

“No. We’re already here in this new timeline, so now we’re a part of it, permanently. Only the people who are still in that timeline when it goes will go with it. There is no saving it. There… There never was.” He sighed. “Our only options now are to… try and stay out of the way of things, I guess, and try to keep Haggar out of the way too, and hope that everything goes the same way, hope that our timeline is basically recreated, or….”

Well, or literally anything else. It sounded like quite a few options when you put it that way. But it certainly didn’t feel like it to anyone in that room. Though getting home had always been a longshot, though Hunk had been torn about whether or not to go home in the first place, it was still devastating to have it cease to be even a possibility. Keith, too, looked devastated, though he at least had his mom and Shiro with him.

Watching Lance register, or rather fail to register, this new information just poured salt in the proverbial wound. His face suspended in almost childlike confusion, he looked first to Veronica, as though she would have some magical Big Sister solution, and then to Pidge, as though she would have some Technology solution, and finally, face falling further and further, to Allura, as though she would have an Alchemy solution. When there were no solutions to be had, he shakily leaned forward, resting his trembling elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Then, hoarsely, he rasped, “I need – I need a minute,” and stood, one hand still on his face, rubbing his eyes. He quickly walked out of the room.

Keith shot to his feet at once, but Veronica, who rose only slightly more sedately, patted him gently on the shoulder as she passed him. “I’ve got this,” she reassured the group at large, her voice soft and resigned, before following her brother out of the room.

The roaring success of their mission on Altea was long-forgotten now, replaced by a bleak, mournful atmosphere. “Do the MFE pilots and the rest of the crew know yet?” Keith asked.

Matt shook his head. “Shiro’s making an announcement to everyone after breakfast tomorrow… er, today. Speaking of which….” He reluctantly stood from the couch. “I should probably try to fit some sleep in…. Are you guys gonna be okay?” The question was mostly directed at Pidge, but, Hunk noted with some surprise, not entirely.

“I’m good, Matt,” Pidge confirmed, and the rest of them voiced similar sentiments. Matt nodded, waved goodnight, and headed for his bedroom.

The rest of them were too wired to get any rest, so Keith and Allura headed for the training room to work off some steam (although this seemed, on Allura’s part, to be an effort at comforting Keith more than anything else). Meanwhile, Hunk returned to the kitchen, with Pidge slinking along at his side.

He was seeking out suitable storage for his culinary creation, having finished sampling it with Pidge as his willing assistant, when someone said from the doorway, “Hunk? Pidge?”

Hunk turned so fast he nearly threw the mysteriously glowing plastic container he was holding across the room. (It seemed to have been used for a science experiment at one point, probably by one of the Holts or Slav, and he and Pidge had been determining how safe it was to store food in.) “Lance? Hey, buddy.”

Lance’s eyes were red, and there were obvious tear tracks on his cheeks, but he seemed steadier than earlier. “Can we talk?”

“Sure,” Pidge affirmed, her voice so gentle that it was downright jarring coming from her face.

Lance looked around the kitchen. “Keith and Allura…?”

“Training room,” Pidge supplied.

Lance led the way through the ship until they reached the aforementioned room. When he opened the door, Keith and Allura immediately stood from the bench they’d been sitting on, setting down their water bottles. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” Allura stammered as they walked over to him. “Are you…” She paused. “How are you feeling?” She reached down to take Lance’s left hand. On his other side, Keith gingerly rested a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

Lance’s lips twitched like he was trying to smile but couldn’t. He visibly struggled for words, then shrugged in lieu of answering, squeezing the two hands in contact with him reassuringly.

The group moved deeper into the training room, further from the connecting hallway and any potential passersby and eavesdroppers. “So…” Lance’s voice faltered. He took a deep breath, then started again, “So, Hunk, I guess you probably… already made a decision.”

Hunk started, a little hurt. “I wouldn’t make a decision without you.”

“No, I know, but, I mean, you already decided what you think we should do, didn’t you?”

 _Trust Lance to read me better than anyone else,_ Hunk thought with a touch of fondness as the other three twisted to look at him quizzically. “…Yeah.”

“And it’s… You want to fix things, don’t you? You think we should save Altea.”

“…Yeah.”

Lance nodded like he’d expected that. “Okay.”

Nearly all of Hunk’s tension drained from him at that, and the others seemed to feel the same way, staring at Lance in shocked relief. “O-Okay?” Hunk echoed.

“Well, I thought about it,” Lance said, “and the more I think about it, the more it seems like there’s really no choice at all, is there? Because… I mean, say we try to recreate our timeline, like you said. Even if we succeed, and everything goes exactly the same way, then, well, _everything’s gonna happen the exact same way._ Which means Haggar will still open that rift, and we’ll still follow her through, and we’ll still find ourselves right here making the same call, and… it’ll just… it’ll keep happening, over and over, and the universe will never actually make it past the year we came from, which sounds kind of completely horrifying, like, existential-crisis, nervous-breakdown horrifying.

“But it’s not just that. We’re the defenders of the universe, right? Not… the defenders of our homes, and our… people, and _then_ the rest of the universe. We’re the defenders of the whole universe, and everyone in it, equally and all at the same time. So we have to save as many people as we can, whenever we can, and right now, that’s Altea.”

Hunk was extraordinarily glad that they’d come to that resolution then and there, because seconds later, the door slid open, and they all turned to face Shiro as he entered. “Got a problem,” he announced grimly. “Honerva – this time’s Honerva – she’s not on Daibazaal. She’s right here in our cell. Haggar used some kind of glamour alchemy on her and herself. Which means right now, and for the past five months, she’s been ruling at Zarkon’s side, doing whatever she wants.”

…So they never really had a chance to prevent changes in the timeline, huh?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is out 01/03! There's two chapters left, and then an epilogue.


	4. Shed a Little Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently rewatching Voltron but I have yet to reach season 8, which means I'm not entirely sure which characters were actually aboard the Atlas during that final fight at the end. If you see anyone in this chapter whose presence surprises you, it's because I mistakenly believed they were on the Atlas when it crossed through to this time period. Sorry if anything's wrong because of that!
> 
> Also, fair warning, I did proofread this and all before posting it today, but I'm a little sick so I totally could have missed something. Let me know if I made any mistakes please, or if anything that happens is a little confusing or doesn't make sense and needs to be further explained or just fixed.

> Put an ‘X’ on my chest, on my chest  
>  But I’m still standing ‘cause I won’t forget  
>  The hell on earth you put me through  
>  I’ll save myself in spite of you  
>  Smoke, fire, it’s all going up  
>  Don’t you know I ain’t afraid  
>  To shed a little blood?
> 
> White Flag by Bishop Briggs

#### Chapter 3: Shed a Little Blood

Hunk and the other four paladins gathered around Shiro at the head of the table in the meeting room. Nearby, the rest of Atlas’s inner circle was gathered: Coran, Iverson, Krolia, Pidge’s family, Romelle, Veronica, Acxa, and the MFE fighter pilots. Finally, the guest of honor sat beside an extremely uncomfortable Lance: Honerva, de-glamour-alchemy-ed, bound at the wrists but nowhere else, and, well, Hunk was no expert at Altean or Galran biology, but he was pretty sure she was several months pregnant.

“Are you _sure_ she’s not Haggar?” Keith questioned.

“Yes, Keith,” Allura sighed tiredly, having tested Honerva in every alchemical way possible and subsequently answered that same question from Keith about a gazillion times.

Pidge pushed up her glasses, indicating that she was about to say something factual but utterly irrelevant. “Technically speaking, she _is_ Haggar, actually, because the name Haggar refers to Honerva, and she’s Honerva, therefore she’s the person to whom the name Haggar refers. I mean, if you went back in time – well, forward in time, I guess – if you went to the year before the Kerberos mission and pointed me out while I was still going by Katie Holt and said, ‘Are you Pidge?’ the answer – “

“Pidge,” Lance said, voice tinged with desperation, “ _please_.”

Pidge blinked. “Oh. Right. Important meeting. Sorry.”

“Tell everyone what you told us,” Shiro instructed Honerva, firmly but not unkindly. “Start at the beginning. Spare no detail; anything, no matter how small, could be important.”

Honerva nodded. “The day… Haggar, as you call her, arrived in that mechasuit, Voltron quickly assembled to intercept it – her – and interrogate her. However, by the time they got to her, the mechasuit was already empty. They investigated the mecha and discovered an open hatch through which an escape pod appeared to have exited. That was when I received the same warning on Daibazaal the same warning that all of the other nearby planets received: someone capable of piloting and possibly building a mechasuit with power and complexity to rival Voltron was at large. The next thing I went to do was arm myself, naturally, but she was there before I could do a thing. The alarms never even went off. I’m… still not sure how she breached the castle.

“As soon as I laid eyes on her, I became paralyzed by fear. Given the number of life-threatening situations I’ve found myself in over the decaphoebs as a result of my trade and my position, I find it unlikely that that was a genuine emotional reaction; I have to believe she used some sort of emotive alchemy to immobilize me. Then she took on my own appearance and called for backup in my voice. When I glimpsed my appearance, I seemed to have taken on her appearance in turn. By the time Zarkon returned to our home, I had already been detained. Both he and Alfor have been to my cell to interrogate me in the quintants since, but nothing I’ve said has swayed either of them from Haggar’s words.

“She was so much more powerful than me,” Honerva added, sounding troubled.

“Well, she _is_ you,” Veronica pointed out helpfully. “Just, y’know…, older. A lot older.”

“When that guard offered me an audience with someone of my choosing in exchange for assisting with the interrogation,” Honerva continued, “I thought, if nothing else, perhaps I could probe my imposter for information. In the event that I succeeded in getting something out of her, I had planned to seek an audience with my old friend Alfor once more so I could relay that information. Whether or not he believed me, at least he would then have been forewarned.”

“You claim to be his friend, and yet it’s only two decaphoebs from now that you and Zarkon turn on him,” Allura commented skeptically. “On _us_.” Beneath her harsh veneer, there was genuine pain and betrayal on her face. “Explain that to me.”

Honerva looked lost. “I… I wish I could. Shiro spoke to me of the suffering that Zarkon and I put you and countless others through. I can’t imagine doing those things to anyone. I certainly can’t imagine killing Alfor, or trying to kill you. I’m sorry, dear Allura. I don’t have an explanation.”

“Well, when you find one,” Allura responded crisply, “let me know.” She stood, spun on her heel, and stormed from the room, leaving the remaining meeting participants in awkward, uncertain silence.

“…Pardon me,” Coran said quietly as he, too, stood. He glanced at Honerva, his face entirely unreadable, and followed Allura.

After a few heartbeats, Shiro cleared his throat, regaining the room’s attention, and asked Honerva hopefully, “ _Do_ you have any idea what Haggar’s plan is? You must have spoken with her at least briefly when she had you imprisoned.”

“Unfortunately, what I’ve told you already is everything I know. At this point, I’m as much in the dark as all of you are.”

Shiro frowned. “Okay. That is unfortunate, but we’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I’d like you to compose a map of your palace for us. I think an infiltration mission is necessary at this point.”

“I can do that within a varga or two.”

“Great. In that case, let’s break for now and reconvene in… let’s say three vargas, to be safe.”

The occupants of the room dispersed at that. With his four teammates in tow, Hunk made a beeline for Allura’s room. He was anticipating the sounds of Allura’s furious venting and Coran’s sympathetic mollifications as they neared. Instead, when he stood just outside her room with his hand poised to knock, he heard sniffling.

Both Keith and Pidge reeled backwards on instinct, their panic evident on their faces. Lance, on the other hand, went round-eyed with concern and pushed his way right through the door. Allura looked up at them with wet eyes from where she sat on her bed beside Coran, who had one arm around her shoulder.

She stood almost automatically as they entered, which made it quite easy for Hunk to wrap his arms around her in one of his patented bear hugs. Lance was close behind, enfolding them both in his long arms, and it was scarcely seconds before Keith and Pidge seemed to get their bearings and joined the hug. As she wriggled in the center, doing her best to return the confining and multilayered embrace, Allura let out a soft little laugh that still sounded so despondent it only made all of them tighten their grip on her and one another.

It was several long moments before they started to release each other. The words ‘What’s wrong?’ were on the tip of Hunk’s tongue, but Allura ultimately needed no prompting to unload her feelings onto her friends. “This whole time we’ve been here, part of me has been naively hoping that someday I could meet my father again, in some distant future where we successfully stopped the war and proved our identities to him, to everyone. And even more naively, I – I thought maybe I would meet Zarkon and Honerva again, too. Maybe they could be peacefully dissuaded from continuing on their current trajectory, and maybe I could even have some sort of relationship with them again, even if it wouldn’t ever be as close as this timeline’s version of me would.

“But I can’t. I see that now. I should have seen that from the beginning. Haggar, the person Honerva became, the person she’s capable of becoming… I can’t separate her from the person I thought, in my youth, she would always be. This Honerva. I don’t know if I will ever be able to look past that. And yet, most foolishly, that same naïve part of me still longs to return to our dynamics. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Lance reached towards her, gently encompassing her hands in his own. “Allura, it makes perfect sense. You’re in a weird, messed up situation. You’re going to have weird, messed up feelings about it. Just remember that the most important thing is for you to be happy, no matter where Honerva fits into that.”

“You don’t need Haggar or anyone else, anyway,” Keith blurted out. “I mean, if things don’t work out with her or with your – well, you have the six of us, and we’re not ever going anywhere, and we’re your family, too. We’ll always be your family.”

“If you do decide you want a relationship with Honerva, it’ll take time, and probably distance too,” Pidge pointed out logically, then added, “But if you decide at _any point_ that you _don’t_ want that, you don’t owe it to her, either, even if it makes her feel guilty or hurt.”

Whether it was from the touching moment or the looming emotional fallout of losing his family (which Hunk was planning to repress for as long as was humanly possible, or at least until Haggar had been defeated), Hunk was suddenly overcome by a surge of fierce pride and profound fondness for his space family. He yanked all five present family members into another tight hug. “I love you guys _so much_ ,” he declared.

“Aw, Hunk, we love you too!” Lance said happily. The other four expressed their own reciprocations as well.

“Thank you, all of you.” Allura’s eyes were tearing up again, but they seemed to be happy tears this time. “I don’t know what I would do without any of you.”

“Well, not much, since you’d probably still be in cryosleep,” Pidge quipped.

Despite his most recent affiliation having been with the Black Lion, Hunk still felt his protective Yellow Paladin instincts rising in him. _I’ll save you all_ , he vowed silently. _I’m not going to lose anyone else. I’m going to keep all of you safe, whatever it takes._

* * *

Three hours later, Honerva’s map had been distributed to each of the notable Atlas crew members and residents, so they reconvened in the meeting room.

“By now, both Haggar and this time’s Voltron will know that their prisoner, Honerva, has been stolen from then,” Shiro announced. “Voltron will be looking for her, and Haggar will be taking steps to either accelerate her plans or take us out as fast as possible, which means we have to work faster. There’s another reason we have to work fast, too. Thanks to the work of our resident tech experts,” across the table from the paladins, Matt and Veronica preened, “the Atlas is hidden from radars, but we don’t have the supplies necessary to maintain that ability long-term, or to establish a cloaking mechanism. We would need to make a supply run in order to thoroughly and permanently hide here or anywhere else.

“It bears mentioning that if Haggar finds us, we’ll obviously need to leave. However, since we’ve eluded detection this long, it seems more likely that we’re safe here for the time being. That means we can afford to focus our attention on uncovering her plans. Using the map Honerva provided us with, several teams are going to infiltrate her castle, find her laboratory, and investigate.”

“So, to be clear,” Pidge interjected, “you’re sending Voltron, right? I mean – “ she gestured to herself and the other paladins, “us?”

Shiro grimaced. “Yes. Unfortunately, I have to stay here in case the Atlas needs to make a quick escape or engage in combat. I’m not just sending Voltron, though. I’m also sending the MFE pilots – “ (“Yes!” Rizavi hissed, pumping her fist in the air.) “ – Veronica, Matt, Krolia, Acxa, and Romelle. Acxa, do you think Ezor and Zethrid can be trusted with a mission like this?”

Acxa nodded.

“Excellent, I’ll add them to the roster too.”

“I should come too,” Honerva put forth with conviction.

“No,” Allura snapped before anyone else could speak. “Absolutely not.”

Honerva was taken aback. “But I can help,” she insisted. “I know my castle better than anyone, and my servants will recognize me. Please, Allura, this is the only way I can fix – “

“There is _nothing_ you can fix,” Allura cut her off angrily. “Because you’ve done nothing to _this_ world yet, and what you did to me? What you did to Coran, to Shiro, to the rest of my family? There’s no fixing any of it.” Visibly reining in her temper, she finished, “Seeing as you are only movements away from giving birth in this timeline, I can only assume the quintessence that infected you delayed your pregnancy in the other timeline, given that Lotor, your son, was only born after the war started, at least two decaphoebs from now. You can still stop Lotor from being infected by that same madness you were all overcome by. That’s what you can fix now.”

Shiro looked warily between Allura and Honerva. “…Right. So, uh, Honerva, you’ll be… staying here. But if you could confer with those who are leaving to make sure they know everything that might be relevant to the mission, that would be really useful.”

“Of course,” Honerva agreed sadly.

“Thanks. Now, I think I want to break you into teams of four, led by Hunk, Krolia, Acxa, and Griffin, each of you with at least one tech-savvy team member. Unfortunately, Voltron, this means you’re going to be broken into two different teams. Do you think you can work with that?”

Hunk exchanged glances with his team and nodded.

“Good. Here’s how it’s gonna go….”

* * *

A little more than half a day after the meeting was over, Hunk descended the ramp out of the Atlas into the pale dawn of the outdoors, citing a need for fresh air. He meandered a few yards from the ship, settling under the foliage of a tree on the outskirts of the neighboring forest. Then he leaned against the tree, looked up at the sky, and heaved a great sigh. “I still miss you, Black,” he murmured, and then, as more of an afterthought than he would ever admit, added, “and you too, Yellow, of course.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling awkward all of a sudden, though he’d had one-sided interactions like this many times in the months since losing the lions. “I’m still trying to understand why you – why you’re not here,” he confessed. “Heck, I still don’t really understand why you chose me in the first place. Out of all the people in the universe, and all the awesome people I personally know and love, you decided I was the person who should lead the world’s last hope for freedom. But you _did_ choose me, and I know you wouldn’t have risked the fate of the universe on anything but your top pick, or at least someone close. There must be something in me that I’ve never seen that made you think I was worthy.

“And you know what? That’s not a choice you get to take back. I miss you, and I’ll always miss you, and I’ll always be grateful to you for the chance you gave me, but I’m the Black Paladin with or without you. And my team is still Voltron, with or without the lions that told us we could be that. Sure, you guys are technically what makes up Voltron, but to me, Voltron is about the innocent people that we save, and the impossible battles that we fight, and the risks that we take, and the sacrifices that we make. Maybe, once, I needed a huge, awesome robot to tell me I could do that, but now? There’s nothing in this or any other world that could stop me – stop _us_ \- from defending the universe. That’s who we are.

“I don’t even know if you can hear me from… wherever it is you went, and if you can, I don’t even know if you care what I’m saying. But I’m about to go on a crazy mission that might get me killed – or tortured, or brainwashed, or whatever Haggar’s up to these days – so I guess this is goodbye, or something like that.” He hesitated. “If I’m being honest, part of me is a little scared that you just… figured out I wasn’t the paladin you wanted me to be, in the end. But I don’t – well, maybe this is wishful thinking, but I don’t think you’d just leave. I think that if you really didn’t want me as a paladin anymore, you’d have just cut me off and waited for someone worthy to show up. So somehow, something must have forced you to leave. That’s what most of me thinks. And if I make it out of this alive, I’m coming for you next, Black. If there’s any way to find you, then I’m gonna find all five of you. I promise.”

“Hey, Hunk!” Hunk glanced back at the Atlas to see Romelle waving him over. “It’s nearly time to leave!”

“Coming!” Hunk headed back to the Atlas and followed Romelle inside back to that damned meeting room. Seriously, if he never saw it again, it would be too soon.

“Alright, everyone,” Shiro began. “All of you have your maps?” A chorus of affirmations answered him. “Great. All of you know what teams you’re on?” More affirmations ensued. “And you all know where you’re going once you reach Daibazaal?”

“Shiro, we went over this literally less than a varga earlier,” Krolia reminded him patiently. “If anyone didn’t remember, they probably shouldn’t be going on this mission at all.”

“Right,” Shiro agreed with feigned enthusiasm, and very little of it. “You’re right. Okay! Good luck, everyone. Don’t forget to keep us updated. We’ll see you on the other side.”

As everyone filtered out of the room in the direction of the pods (though Hunk noticed Allura going to Honerva and noted that he should ask her about their conversation later), Hunk approached Shiro. “Hey, are you doing okay?”

Shiro winced. “That obvious, huh?”

“…No?”

Shiro let out a short, tired laugh. “I hate being stuck here,” he admitted. “I really, _really_ hate it. Especially since you guys have apparently been here on your own for _five months_ while I was just sitting there, waiting for someone else to get me to you. And now it’s been nearly two and a half days of, well, basically just more waiting.”

“That’s kind of funny, ‘cause to me it’s incredibly jarring that so much has happened in the past two and a half days when the past five months have been comparatively super boring.” Hunk grinned, hoping some of his levity might permeate Shiro’s frustration. “Guess that’s just what happens when you get all seven of us in the same place.”

“You can say that again,” Shiro snorted. “All jokes aside, though, it does make me feel better to hear that you guys didn’t have too much trouble.”

“Yep, everything was pretty calm on our end.” Hunk made a mental note to never tell Shiro about the spontaneous rock shower that had nearly killed them all, or that time Lance had briefly, accidentally become a gang’s getaway pilot, or the Pasta Strainer Incident. No, definitely not the Pasta Strainer Incident. (Hint: That strainer had not been intended for pasta after all, and horns were a lot more dangerous and difficult to maneuver with than Hunk would have thought.)

“It also makes me feel better knowing that you were here to hold everything together,” Shiro continued. “You know, the others said you really kept them focused and efficient. Keith said they probably wouldn’t have lasted a week without you.”

“Really? _Keith_ said that?” It wasn’t that Hunk expected Keith to think he was a bad leader or anything, but Keith was incredibly… self-sufficient, in a word. He’d have expected Keith to think more highly of his own capabilities, maybe. Keith had probably been exaggerating, but the sentiment warmed Hunk all the same.

“He did, which makes me think things were a little harder around here than you’ve let on,” Shiro remarked with a knowing look, at which Hunk flushed. “But you handled all of it, and apparently you were cool and collected throughout.”

Hunk grimaced. “Ha. No, not really.”

“Figured as much,” Shiro stated calmly. “But honestly, that’s part of being a leader; looking like you’re collected when you’re actually completely freaking out.”

“Oh, man, you too?” Hunk exclaimed. “Geez, there’s definitely no hope for me then.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Shiro disagreed. “It does get easier, you know. And you might not see it, but you’ve come a long way from where you started. I’m proud of you, Hunk.”

Hunk flushed even darker than before. “Thanks, Shiro.”

They exchanged a goodbye hug, and then Hunk followed the others to the escape pods. “Everything good?” Lance asked.

“So far,” Hunk shrugged. “Hey, Allura, do you think there’s any way you could… I don’t know, replicate that crystal in Shiro’s arm?”

“You mean… the one that was created by the six-hundred-year-old castle’s teludav getting overloaded inside a rift between all realities?” Allura questioned slowly. “That crystal?”

“…Yeah?”

Allura gave the inquiry a level of consideration that contradicted her prior incredulity. “I suppose I could do more research into the event that formed it,” she determined eventually. “It’s possible we could generate one through alternative, less destructive methods, perhaps with some of the alchemical abilities I learned in Oriande.”

“You’re thinking we could get Shiro back in the field,” Pidge realized out loud.

“Yep.”

Keith brightened. “That would be awesome if you could find a way, Allura.”

“Well, after – “

“Excuse me! Coming through!” Matt squeezed into the pod just before Lance closed the door.

“There is _not_ enough room for you in here,” Lance complained, scowling at the older man, though he closed them in and set the pod to launching regardless.

“There’s not enough room for me in any of the pods,” Matt retorted. “We only have three operational pods because of the way we blasted out of that prison, and there’s sixteen of us. But Veronica already left with the MFEs, and…, yeah, I don’t really wanna spend a trip in close quarters with three women who look like they wanna kill me, a fourth who _doesn’t_ look like she wants to kill me but might join in for fun if someone else tries, and a fifth who’s pretty much neutral.”

Hunk mentally ran through the five women he was referencing. “Oh, Krolia doesn’t want to kill you,” he reassured Matt. “That’s just her face.”

“Runs in the family,” Pidge contributed helpfully.

Lance gestured dubiously at Keith. “You wanna ride with this guy instead?”

“I’m _right here_ , guys.”

“Keith might look like he wants to kill me, but I’ve known him long enough that I’m relatively confident he doesn’t,” Matt confirmed. “And I think Pidge would… okay, I think Hunk would stop him if he tried, anyway.” He pointed at Lance and Allura. “Jury’s out on you two, but I have faith in you both.”

“If I try to kill you, will you ride back with the other five when we’re done?” Lance asked hopefully.

“No offense, but the certainty of you trying to kill me is less of a risk than the possibility of literally anyone in that other pod succeeding in killing me.”

“Oh, come on! Romelle hardly knows how to fight!”

“You hardly know how to fight,” Keith scoffed.

“Excuse you! I – ”

“Plus, you can’t forget that Romelle has super strength,” Pidge interrupted.

“Romelle does not have super strength, you lot are simply abnormally weak,” Allura said matter-of-factly.

“We are not! We have the perfect amount of strength!” Lance argued.

As the banter continued, it occurred to Hunk that he really ought to have taken Matt’s place on the other pod if he’d wanted a more peaceful trip.

* * *

The sixteen of them reunited in the shadows cast by Zarkon’s and Honerva’s castle. After so much time spent living on the same planet, the contrast between the pale daylight of the planet they’d left behind and the moon shining high in Daibazaal’s sky was a bit jarring. At least the interstellar equivalent of jetlag had made for the ideal amount of time to eat, sleep, and plan between their mission on Altea and their mission here. Acxa, Veronica, Ezor, and Zethrid joined Hunk’s team of Lance, Allura, and Matt as they made their way to the back of the castle. Meanwhile, Pidge and Keith went with the other six to the front to act as distractions.

The two teams lurked patiently behind the massive building until they heard a great ruckus arise from the opposite side, followed closely by a message on their communicators indicating that their partner teams had succeeded in their goal. Then Hunk and Acxa led their teams into the castle, dispatching all opponents as quickly and quietly as possible. Once inside, it was time to split up. Acxa led her team away in search of the guards’ headquarters. Hunk led his own team towards the laboratory.

The journey from the back entrance to their destination was quiet. Too quiet. Hunk felt himself growing tenser and tenser as they neared the lab. Sure enough, as they rounded the last corner, Lance hissed, “ _Stop_!” and backed into the rest of them, spreading his arms out to block their passage.

“Good news?” Matt asked optimistically.

“Try again.”

“…Neutral news?”

“Ooh, so close. I mean, assuming Haggar sitting in the lab waiting for us is close to neutral news.”

“Lance, could you please _streamline your announcements_?!” Allura whispered heatedly.

“Sorry, but I am kind of _freaking out right now because the goddamn witch is right freaking there_!" Lance whispered back, his flippant attitude giving way to something like hysteria.

“It’s okay, guys, we planned for this,” Hunk reminded them.

“That was a worst-case scenario kind of plan!” Lance whisper-shrieked.

“Yeah, well, we planned for it anyway, and this is why. So take a breath, compose yourself, and get ready.”

Hunk gave the three of them a moment to brace themselves, anchoring his own composure to his concern for them to distract himself from his incoming panic. Then he commanded, “Lance, Allura, get into position. Matt, keep a lookout.”

As Lance and Allura, faces set now in focused stoicism, began creeping around the corner and down the hall, and Matt began scanning all directions, Hunk retrieved his communicator and shot off a quick warning to the other three teams. Then he – 

_Holy crap we’re all about to be killed by Haggar and I’m never gonna see any of my friends or family or Black or Yellow ever again and I’m not even gonna know if we beat her or not –_

_At least Keith is on Krolia’s team instead, if Keith were here he would run headfirst as Haggar just like he did with Zarkon and then he would die for sure, but Lance and Allura will be careful -_

_Of course Lance isn’t going to be careful, he’s the one who covered Coran in that explosion and threw himself at Ezor when she was threatening Pidge and literally_ died _knocking Allura out of the way of that blast that one time -_

_Allura’s not any better anyway, she dove out of the castleship onto the Balmera while being actively shot at by a Robeast and then she nearly died keeping the Balmera alive -_

_And the Balmera’s dead now too, or it will be in two months or something and Shay is going to come here with the Marmorites and she’s going to find out that I’m dead and then she’s going to die too because Haggar’s probably gonna kill everyone who ever helped us -_

_Christ, did I just use Lance’s crappy nickname for the Blades of Marmora?_

Hunk breathed in deeply, waving away the concerned look Matt gave him. “Fine,” he wheezed. “I’m fine, keeping watching.”

 _No one is going to die,_ he told himself firmly, because if he could just believe that, then he could get through the rest of it. _Everything will go according to plan. The four of us will distract Haggar and draw her away from the lab safely. Then another team will show up to help us, and another other team will show up here to find out what Haggar’s planning. Then that team will get clear, and then Veronica will call from the guards' headquarters pretending to be a guard to tell Haggar there's trouble in the lab, and then we’ll all go back to the Atlas where absolutely no one will try to kill us._

(And if someone did get killed mid-mission – well, at that point, Hunk would probably zone out enough that he could keep going anyway. He still remembered the terrifying heartbeats between Lance taking that hit for Allura and Allura letting him know Lance was okay, though those heartbeats were fuzzy and remote in hindsight. He hadn’t shut down then, at least in any way that hurt the mission. If he could push through that, he could push through anything.)

All in all, the whole internal dialogue seemed to have taken only seconds. Hunk came back to himself at the sound of alchemy crackling down the hall, followed first by Haggar’s wordless snarl, then by a blast of alchemy so violent that the whole castle shook. He could only stand there waiting for his cue, trying to think about anything other than the imminent possibility of nearly everyone he loved dying. At least the distinct lack of pained or worried cries indicated that none of the alchemy had hit Lance or Allura yet.

“It took you long enough to realize I was here,” Haggar sneered. “I thought you might have given up.”

“Never,” Allura growled. “I _will_ stop whatever you planned.”

“How will you do that when you don’t know what I’m planning?” Haggar challenged pleasantly.

“Well, you can’t do anything if you’re dead, can you?” Lance’s rhetorical question preceded an uproar of gun blasts and alchemy, accompanied by the rapid telltale whooshing of Haggar’s short-range teleportation as she presumably evaded both him and Allura.

The sounds of fighting carried on for a few moments, and then Allura shouted, “We will defeat you, Haggar!”

Hunk and Matt nodded at each other, for that was their cue. Then Hunk activated his bayard, Matt pulled out a silver dome-shaped gadget with a single button on it, and they darted down the hall and into the lab where the fight was happening. Lance and Allura were nearly backed up to the wall on the opposite side of the room, with Haggar facing them instead of Hunk and Matt. Hunk kept his gun trained on her regardless so that he could provide cover fire for Matt if she turned around. Matt ran towards a random large, electronic device with Hunk at his side, shoved the flat side of his gadget against the most accessible surface, and pressed the button on the gadget. At once, a sharp _click_ indicated that the gadget had adhered itself to the adjacent platform. It emitted a soft whirring noise, and the dull translucent stripes that ran down it began glowing aquamarine.

Haggar whirled around, and Hunk immediately opened fire on her, ignoring her close resemblance to the Honerva on the Atlas as thoroughly as he could. “ _What are you doing_?!” she snarled. She vanished and rematerialized just inches from Hunk. He yelped in alarm, but Matt jabbed his staff at her, forcing her to dodge him instead of attacking Hunk.

“Is it done yet?” Hunk demanded.

“Done!” Matt waved at Lance and Allura. “Let’s get out of here!”

Matt pressed the button on the gadget again, causing it to detach as the whirring and glowing died down. Then the four of them took off, sprinting back towards the exit at top speed.

Just a few yards from the lab, they passed through the intersection of their corridor and the corridor another team should be hiding in. When they reached it, Lance and Matt took off to the right, and Hunk and Allura kept going straight. Sure enough, a rain of gunfire to the left indicated that the MFEs were there as a third distraction.

After several heartbeats passed with no footsteps, shouting, or other indications of a pursuer, Hunk pulled out his communicator and alerted the rest of his team and Griffin’s team to that fact. He received a similar message from Griffin, which meant Haggar had gone after Lance and Matt. Then a notification from Krolia popped up: Pidge had successfully downloaded all pertinent data from the computers in Haggar’s lab, and Keith and Romelle had gathered up any documents that looked important. The mission was over.

Hunk and Allura took a right, intent on getting Lance and Matt away from Haggar, but the two ran into them quite soon with the alchemist nowhere to be seen. "Heard Veronica's voice from Haggar's comm," Lance gasped out. "I guess that means Krolia’s team got clear?”

“It must,” Allura agreed.

The four of them dashed for the exits, nearly running headfirst into Krolia’s team on the outside. Then all eight of them made their way a reasonable distance from the castle with the intention of waiting and watching for the other two teams. At least, that was Hunk’s intention. Once they were there, however, Krolia said sharply, “You take the escape pods back to Altea. I’ll help the others find another way off this planet, but you need to go _now_.”

“What is it?” Hunk demanded.

“Long story short, Haggar already finished her plan,” Pidge revealed grimly. "Which was to suck, like, unquantifiably large amounts of quintessence out of the rift here on Daibazaal."

Hunk felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. “What – But – “ He looked around wildly as if some evidence of her malevolence would make itself apparent to him in the very air that surrounded them. “Why… Why hasn’t she done anything with it yet?”

“She’s waiting for Honerva to give birth to Lotor,” Keith explained. “Then she’s going to send Honerva into the rift as bait for Voltron. Then... she's going to close the rift and trap them there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. That gadget Matt was using actually did nothing at all, it was just there to look like it was doing something so that Haggar would chase him and the others. 
> 
> Edit 01/06: Having some laptop trouble, so it might be a hot second before the next chapter is out. Sorry! I'll put it up as soon as I can.

**Author's Note:**

> > There's a burning inside  
> That's brighter than this fire  
> I'm more than a survivor  
> More than a survivor
>> 
>> Champion by Tommee Profitt ft. Nicole Serrano


End file.
